8 comments:

Steve
said...

I'm sorry but that post just makes the writer look small. I'd have thought getting a rejection letter six years later would call for humor. I mean, damn, who cares about literary journals--online, print, or otherwise? Send your story elsewhere, dude. Move on. Your sounding remarkably close to an Alanis Morisette song, and in my own experience I know that whenever that happens (whenever life is like a bad 90s pop-angst song) the problem is usually with me.

If online lit mags could get financial backing from arts councils and universities, as many pretentious print lit mags do, then online journals could afford to pay their contributors. And if online journals could pay their contributors, online publishing credits would be perceived as prestigious as print credits, in the eyes of agents and editors.

It's simple psychology, people don't esteem something that is free or cheap. I learned this years ago when I tutored, that the more I charged, the more clients I got.

As it is, writers depend on pretentious print lit mags for resume-worthy pub credits. One story in Univerity in the Middle of the Country Review is equal to twenty stories in online journals where writers don't get paid and readers don't have to pay. I wish agents and editors did not have this bias, but this is what you face if you want to move up. Bash them all you want, but they are still the biggest game.

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't this blog pretty much illustrate the idea that "moving up" is a suckers bet in the writer's game? Write something that gets an agent's attention, that rocks the f-ing house, and it doesn't matter that you've been published in a lit mag, online or otherwise. You could be some obscure dude in Sweden writing crime novels in your spare time. Doesn't matter.

But please, please, for the love of Jeebus, don't spend your life grasping for the external validation that is the ridiculous world of lit mag publishing. Send out all you want, get published, have fun with it and celebrate your success: just don't view it as anything more than what it is, a masturbatory country club of pretend accomplishment. Otherwise, you'll spend precious time that could be spend writing, drinking or screwing (or raising a family) on being angry about six year old rejections. Waste. Of. A. Life.

Damnit, aren't we writers supposed to be examining life, living life, loving life, instead of squandering it over lame-ass rejections by people who don't even know?

Rules of the Game

4) Be nice to one another. The world is already overpopulated with asses.

Guess What?

After 15 years of rejections (most of them posted here along with all the rejections you've sent me over the years), my novel is getting published by a literary press. Little third-gendered me will soon have a book you can read for yourself and see if the hundreds of rejections were misguided or not. For more on the matter, read this post and this one too.

People Magazine Picks Miracle Girls

What the What? (This is actually for real.)

ew.com blog review

"Failure is the New Funny. Whether you're a writer ... or a bookworm ... Literary Rejections on Display is worth checking out."

Huff Po Compliment

"A highly entertaining blog."

The Millions Assesses

"An answer to what to do with your rejections: throw them away, but first, complain about them on the internet!"

Gawker Gawks LROD

"A reminder of the competitive pressures that help drive some authors to start plagiarizing and making things up."

GALLEYCAT Chimes In

"Excellent blog."

The Boston Phoenix Rises

"Might we suggest whiling away the hours with Literary Rejections On Display? We've been hooked for the last couple of weeks..."

Psych Today Puts LROD On The Couch

"An author who, like the rest of us, experiences many more rejections than acceptances."

Blogher Offers a Female Nod

"And since something isn't really something until there's a blog about it, I give you Literary Rejections on Display."

Poets & Writers Questions LROD

"Isn't it part of the writer's job to learn from--rather than reject--rejection?"

HTML GIANT Confesses

"I am sort of addicted to this site. I go through phases: I check it regularly, then I stop myself and ignore it for several months. Then I remember it again and sift through its wreckage."

The Village Voice Bitches About LROD

"Deliberately composed of unpublished individuals who wear their rejection slips as badges of integrity."

Cape Cod Times Gets the Joke

"Caschetta’s wit sparkles in “Literary Rejections on Display,” a humorous and intelligent look at the literary world"